A 17-year veteran of the Newark Police Department was indicted yesterday amid allegations he set fire to an SUV last year to collect an insurance payout.
Johnathan Taylor, a 41-year-old resident of Plainfield, N.J., faces charges of conspiracy, aggravated arson, and insurance fraud for which he could spend the next 30 years in jail if convicted.
Taylor joined the Newark police force in 1996, but his foray into fraud may have begun in 2012, according the indictment by the Essex County grand jury. Prosecutors allege that on March 1, 2012, Taylor arranged to have his 2005 Toyota Sequoia torched and subsequently lied to his insurer, New Jersey Skylands Insurance Company. The burning vehicle was later found, and an investigation followed.
Samuel DeMaio, director of the Newark police department, told reporters the indictment is "troubling" and represents an "an isolated incident" rather than a trend of misconduct by the city's law enforcement.
"The circumstances surrounding this indictment were totally separate from his duties as a police officer," DeMaio stated. "The final outcome of this indictment will determine the police department's course of action once he has had the benefit of due process."
Interestingly, Taylor is not the first Newark police officer to be charged with insurance fraud. Last year, 30-year-old Suliman Kamara was the focus of a state police probe. Investigators believed Kamara attempted to defraud his automotive insurer by falsely reporting his 2003 GMC Yukon stolen in 2009.
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